I'm a bit obsessed with composting.

I did quite a few raised beds on my compacted full of bermuda grass clay.

I put rotten wood first.

And then I put ponies' poop, then ponies' manure with poop, pee, and untreated wood chips, then straw or hay.

I so love composting that my compost heaps hang down from the sky above my head ;-)

Oh well I'm sorry, I just suck with the computer.

Here's the work in progress and what I plan to do on the future corpse of the willow.

So my idea, to get rid of the poor death sentenced willow, is to have it cut, and to lie the trunk and the branches on the ground, then cover them with pure poop, than manure, then straw.

And in spring, to cover with newspaper and compost and plant some thick cover crop like Crimson clover on everything.

But I fear that the willow will regrow and that I'll get a hugelculture mound full of willow babies wanting to get their little roots in the nearby drains of the septic tank.

What do you guys think ?

Oh, and there are billions of worms so perhaps I could also ask on the vermicompost forum if you think worms could have some sort of an impact on the willow corpse.

I also want to thank you all for all those wonderful threads I've read on this forum.

Yes I admit to have been through the 67 accessible pages. It beats the TV.

And I feel less alone in my weird passion with compost.

I've rescued those 2 old ladies, 25 and 28, now living a quiet retirement and providing me with great stuff !

Those 2 old ponies who poop for a living, and you guys, might be the only ones not judging me for a crazy compost obsessed woman ;-)

Many thanks for reading, and I do hope I can compost the willow, it's something really great to look forward !

Willows will easily resprout from the cut trunk so the only way to be completely rid of it is to dig the stump and roots out or treat with a stump removal chemical. And you will likely still get some sprouting while that chemical takes its time to do its work

As to the composting of its parts, they also have an ability to take root in any moist, reasonably fertile medium so be prepared to address the possibility that you may be generating a small willow forest with your cold composting method.

It may be more efficient to shred everything up into small chips, work it into your existing compost and heat things up enough to encourage more rapid decomposition.

I was thinking of shredding too.

I burn wood for heat so anything very big goes into my woodstove. Unless it's REALLY big in which case I make it into boards at the sawmill. So I haven't had occasion to try this method. It seems like in this case you might be at risk of a lot of willow sprouts. A friend of mine took live willow sticks and stuck them right in the ground like stakes in a wet area, and trees sprouted. Tenacious.

Thank you guys, as for tenacious I already have bermuda grass so I might avoid a forest of willows ;-)

What if I put 1 m / 3 feet of clover clippings, bad apples, poop and manure on the trunk and branches, it will go hot, and perhaps the bacteria will rot the remains to death.

The resprouting I can cut as long as they grow, I don't want to use any chemical.

Yeah in fact I so feel like composting the corpse that I'm trying to get my idea approved by the pros ;-)

So a better wording might be :

What will happen if I bury the trunk and branches under 3 feet of manure, but far from the original place where the willow was growing ?

So that I can mow the resproutings around the original place, and I get to build another compost heap on the dead willow.

Can you tell me the dangers I'll be confronting with this sort of hugelculture/hot compost on the fresh corpse of a willow ?

Over the years, I've had to remove 8 large willow trees (Salix matsudana 'Umbraculifera') or 'globe willow'. I wouldn't bury the trunk and any large branches - in fact that seems to be one of the main ways the species reproduces itself - the branches are very brittle in the fall, get knocked off by the wind and snow, and if they float away and end up in a moist area, they sprout.

Its a lot of work but you can strip off the bark and let it all dry a bit, then do what ever you want.

Thank you David, good to know that I was pretty stupid yesterday evening when I came back from work after a very windy day and gathered all the branches that had been knocked off, meaning all the branches I could find in the dark while trying to see them with the light of my phone, and put them on one of the compost pile ;-)

So I guess I'll have to pick them during the week end.

Yes it might be better to keep the trunk on the floor for it to dry and use it next year :-(

Or to pay the cutting guys for them to shred everything and use the pieces as a surface mulch on top.

Or to pay the cutting guys for them to shred everything and use the pieces as a surface mulch on top.

Ta da!! That is by far the best solution. Have it all chipped/shredded and then you can do what you want with it.

Just be aware that the stump will continue to generate sprouts for the near future.

So I guess I also have to let the ground above the roots free of anything (meaning anything but bermuda grass), so as to be able to mow all of them sprouts next spring.

I'll do how you said and let you know.

Thank you very much !

I wouldn't worry too much about small branches, say anything around 1 cm diameter, in a compost pile. Anything larger should be dried out completely - then they could be buried or used for something else.

Gawd, Bermuda grass! I hate that stuff. Finally decided to do battle with it this year, found a product from Bayer that will slowly eliminate it with multiple applications without killing other turf grasses. It got loose in my fescue lawn and crawls into the garden beds. I just want it dead, dead, dead.

I actually did this on a grand scale 5 years ago. Contractor pulled over a dozen willows from the bank of my private lake. I hooked a chain to willows,contractor pulled them out with track loader,I unhooked chain and my neighbor cut trunks from stump while we went for another. Stumps were piled to be burnt when dry,every thing else pushed into a low lying area,walked down,sprinkled with liquid fertilizer, covered with soil and sprigged with common plus coastal Bermuda. The big Hugel pile did send up a lot of green sprouts for 2 years but between occasional releveling with a box blade and mowing with pasture mower, sprouts were unable to survive. Had to fence around it until it stopped settling so cattle didn't walk on top and fall through. I spread 8 additional cu yds soil after 3 years settling. The pile of stumps and roots??? Well they were a problem. I cut sprouts with a sling hoe but was only getting the tops. Rain washed dirt off root balls and created a perfect wilow nursury at bottom of pile. I was forced to break ranks and use 2-4-D to control sprouts. Had to burn stumps then rake up straglers to burn again following winter. In hindsight I should have covered the stumps with everthing else.
The grass does great in summer. If I were not moving soon I would plant berries and fruit.
Based on that experience and facing your situation,I would (A) use trunks as temorary raised bed retainers(they will soon rot and become part of the mound) or (B) bury them along with rest of tree plus pony poop, shredded paper,cardboard,leaves,saw dust,wood chips and anything else that would fill voids inside. Worms might injoy the home but I doubt they will effect resprouts one way or the other. After tree is felled,cut stump close as possible to ground and cut sprouts off as they appear. When stump is soft enough to break up and level with ground it becomes lawn.
Dry branches falling from trees then resprouting once in compost????? I don't think so. They are dead,otherwise they wouldn't fall.

Swerving a bit, re branches breaking off in the fall. I've two species of willow left on my property, globe willow and golden willow, both close to water. In september/october, branches between 1 and 2 inches in dia become extremely brittle and snap off pretty easily. My kids, who used to climb the things, had a few minor falls when branches they used to rely on would snap. These branches float around in the water, and eventually, where they come to ground in the mud, they'll start to grow roots.

I had to cut down a huge one that was shading the gardens, sidewalk, and driveway in my front yard, in the winter the sun couldn't melt the ice and I fell a few times. I cut it off at ground level, then drilled all kinds of holes in the stump, filling them with potassium nitrate, aka 'salt peter' sold as 'stump remover', then topped the holes up now and again as the compound dissolved into the stump. About 8 months later, in the winter, we built a small fire on top the stump, and using a reversed shop vac as a blower, burned out the stump. It was spectacular, deeply red glowing stump, sparks flying high in the air, and when it was all over, the stump was a 2 foot hole in the ground.

With the other stumps, I cut the branches into short lengths, let them dry, then used them to burn a series of small fires on top the stumps, slowly burning them down. Not nearly as spectacular.

@Tox, yes bermuda is awful. I tried to dig each and every root from the soil and by hand, it took me every saturday and sunday afternoon last December and January. Then I put layers of organic matter on top till May. Then I transplanted tomato plants and a buttercup pumpkin.

And there it is, a great crop of bermuda grass, with some tomatoes and some pumpkins in between.

Not to mention the great shelter for snails and slugs, they can hide in the wet grass and attack the ripening tomatoes.

This year, I'm starting earlier and trying to stiffle the damned bermuda grass under a slimy mess of grass cuttings, rotten apples, wood, and manure. I've also overseeded with white clover.

And if the bermuda grass is growing back next spring, I'll cardboard the whole lot. Anyway I'm already looked at sideways by the neighbors as the woman who belongs to a straight jacket. So I don't care having a cardboarded garden if it works against evil bermuda grass.

@Klem,
Thank you very much for sharing your experience, it was very vivid, and a bit frightening too !

I guess I'm quite lucky to have only that one willow to deal with, and I'll let all of it dry for one or two years before using in compost piles.

I was thinking that I could perhaps drill holes in the stump and fill them with liquid N to help bacteria to destroy it... I can't really organize a bond fire because it's pretty close to the house and your experiment, although very attractive, would be a bit dangerous for my investment ;-) Not sure the insurance company would appreciate the consequences !

I will bet you a dollar none of that will work on Bermuda. I did similar things for years. Once I took an 8 ft. diameter patch of lawn, mowed it down to the ground in July, put RoundUp on it. Anything that sprouted back got RoundUp again. When it was dry and dead in August or Sept. I burned it. It was a bare patch of dead ground. The following spring Bermuda came up all over the place. Not just creeping in from the edges. The problem is that the roots survive for a long time up to a foot or more below ground. I double dug my garden beds every coupld years to pull them out, and all I can say is that I kept it under control enough that pretty much stayed in the aisles. Like a cancer in remission. Next spring I'm buying more of that Bermuda grass control and spraying it every month all summer. I don't know what it would do to garden plants but I'm moving most of my garden beds to a Bermuda-free area anyway so the risk is low. The results look promising so far after 3 applications this fall.

@ David,
Well, the part above about the bond fire was yours, I'm so sorry I addressed it to Klem, my mistake and I apologize.

Yes, I noticed during the tempest of wind we had last week that living branches had snapped and I could see them better all over the garden during the week end. Gathered them and put them on top of the compost piles for them to dry to death ;-)

@Klem,
I'm sorry to have addressed an answer to you that was in fact an answer to David, but nevertheless, I thank you very much for sharing and what I get from your experience is that unless equipped with big machinery, willows are a pain !

As I don't have big machinery, I'm stuck with letting the corpse of the willow to dry. If I put it under a pile of pony poop, it might (or will from your experience !) regrow, and then I'll have to deal with a forest of willows by hand and with my little electric mower.

Thanks a lot for having frightened me by describing for how long you had to deal with the remains of yours willows ! It was indeed very good information, although a bit nightmarish !

Oh Tox, you've just ruined all my dreams !

Now here I am, already imagining all the roots of the soon to be cut willow blocking the drains of my septic tank and the dirty water rising and flooding my new house, then imagining all the sprouts of the willow's corpse invading the whole garden, and now... the bermuda grass staying alive under my compost piles !

Guess I'm on bermuda prozac from now on ;-(

IT'S ALIVE ! Wouldn't you save yourself alot of needless work and worry by throwing in the towel now,retreating indoors,pulling the shades and waiting for the inevitable?
It can only be a matter of time until your home is swallowed by willow and bermuda. Alford Hitchcock could have turned all this into a box office smash.
If you would like a diversion,I can send seedlings of a locust tree that appears on my place from time to time.. Processes air into nitrogen for use in rapid growth,thorns long as daggers on every square inch of trunk and limbs,sheds thorns along with bushels of seed every fall. Saw it down and hundreds of pups sprout in a 20' dia circle. Mow the pups down and rot resistant stubs lie in wait of tires to punture. Meanwhile a few hundred new pups sprout. Bird lovers should buy seed and seedlings fast as I could ship them. There is no way cats and coons can climb up to raid bird nests. Give them free rein and a snake will be unable to navigate through the grove in a few years. Hmmm,I wonder about a 3 way cross of Bermuda,Locust and Willow. Despite all that ,bees make the most heavenly honey from the blossoms and nitrogen presists in soil long after trees are gone.

Oh yeah, we had black locust. Cut one down and sprouts come up all over within a 50-ft. radius. They rival that giant 2-acre fungus they found in Michigan for being the largest living organisms on the planet. The nice thing is, if you want a new tree in a certain spot, just cultivate one of the sprouts. :-]

A little trivia Tox. When patrol officers in the United Kingdom carried wood night sticks/batons,Black Locust was prefered for amoung other things,the sounds that resonates when it stricks something.
Sue I think we may have made the resprout issue sound even worse than it actually is. For the most part sprouts emerge from newer growth (small green twigs and limbs). Having seen many willow blowen over or uprooted on eroading stream banks,few sprouts emerge from other than roots and smaller limbs. while it's true for sprouts to grow on trunks of downed willow, roots are intact and in or very near water.and not in numbers that can't be controlled. As you recall I cut stumps off trees we pulled out. While I did have benifit of heavy equipment while uprooting and tractor while mowing and working dirt,I had a bunch of trees to deal with. Chain sawing and leaving a stump with roots on the pond bank would have made stump far more difficult to kill compared to if it were on dry ground. My main question about your ability to mow over new sprouts is if the electric mower is up to the task. You also have chemicals if things start getting out of hand,no could do next to cattle's drinking water and fish in pond. I did notice sprouts were most previlent where soil caved into pockets exposing limbs to sun. I havn't tryed it but feel black plastic would controll new growth where soil is too thin to block 100% sun. One thing is certain,a willow carcass rots much faster than oak,pecan and such.
How many them sticker trees you gonna need?

:-))

I had a look at what a locust tree is on wikipedia and there are photos and true, horns on the trunk which I didn't even know could exist, and worse than a poor willow ! Finally I'm lucky, I keep my willow problem and you keep your locust problem ;-)

Yes I guess my electric mower doesn't have a very long life expectancy, I destroyed the first one after a few hours but then it was cheap chinese crap, perhaps with Christmas approaching I should ask Santa for a few electric mowers so that there's always one handy to fight the willow sprouts next spring !

Or I'll invest into one of those nice battery mowers that I've been wanting to be able to put in the car to go and mow places where there's nice grass mixed with clover that would make such nice hot compost ! There's this nice place close by, huge flat piece of land, covered with clover and some other stuff, ankle deep, that I dream to mow and bag and carry home...

The trunk of the willow for sure I'll keep inside on the floor to dry, and it'll be the base of a nice hugel compost heap next autumn ! The limbs I don't know yet, either shredded, or a heap in the prairie ? Not too close anyway !

Thanks a lot, it's great fun to get advice round here !